Rethinking International Subsidy Rules. Bertelsmann Working Paper 28/02/2020

Geo-economic tensions and global collective action problems call for international cooperation to revise and de-velop rules to guide both the use of domestic subsidies and responses by governments to cross-border competition spillover effects. Current WTO rules that divide all subsidies into either prohibited or actionable cate-gories are no longer fit for purpose. Piecemeal efforts in preferential trade agreements and bi- or trilateral configurations offer a basis on which to build, but are too narrow in scope and focus. Addressing the spillover ef-fects of subsidies could start with launching a work program at the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO to mobilize an epistemic community concerned with subsidy policies, tasked with building a more solid evidence base on the magnitude, purpose and effects of subsidy policies

MAKING THE SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL PROVISIONS OF WTO AGREEMENTS EFFECTIVE FOR THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: PERSPECTIVES FROM BANGLADESH

The paper examines the various aspects of the Special and Differential (S&D) Measures of the WTO and argues that the LDCs can be integrated effectively into the world trading system on a fair and equitable basis through strengthening S&D measures in favour of them. As an active member of the LDCs, Bangladesh is interested in the S&DT and its impact on Bangladesh economy.WTO Agreements, LDCs, Special and Differential Treatment, S&D, Bangladesh

Interdependencies and Collaborative Action for Platform Leadership: A Comparative Analysis of Two Leading Chinese Multi-Sided Digital Platforms

Asia continues to lead e-commerce growth worldwide, with multi-sided platforms like Alibaba.com, 360buy.com and Taobao.com leading the race. Despite their rising prominence, few studies articulate how these multi-sided platforms in Asia service and collaborate with it sides. It is important to learn how platforms encounter and adapt to changing suppliers-platform-customers interactions, to better understand the implications of e-commerce necessary to compete and lead in this digitally enabled landscape. Furthermore, scholars suggest research to discern between modernization of Asia and Westernization. To close these gaps, the authors conduct a case study of two of China’s leading multi-sided digital platforms—A.com and M.com. The researchers cross-examine the development of the two firms since their establishing, focusing on collaborative strategies with their sides and within their business units, through interdependencies and collective action conceptual perspectives. The contributions of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, we introduce a framework that identifies four types (I-IV) of multi-sided platform collaborations. This framework prescribes guidelines to identify and manage different types of collaborative action for strategic planning and operations between platform partners. Secondly, we consolidate four lessons learnt from our data—teach, consolidate, co-opete and ultimately lead—a set of actionable guidelines for platform leadership in the marketplace

Trilateral border issues symposium, 18-19 March, 2013, Tempe, Arizona

tableOfContents: Executive summary of findings and synopsis of recommendations / D. Rick Van Schoik -- Annotated agenda. Opening keynote addresses -- Session 1: Setting the stage--the issues -- Session 2: Setting the stage--strategies for the northern and southern borders -- Session 3: Critical infrastructure protection -- Session 4: Border security operations -- Session 5: Managing trade and the economic impact -- Panel 6: Measuring success -- Papers. Productive borders assure a continued global North America / D. Rick Van Schoik -- Beating the odds / Thomas D'Aquino -- Setting the stage / Roberta Jacobson -- Borders and regulatory cooperation / Colin Robertson -- Dramatic incentives needed / Steven Globerman -- Cross-border and North American cooperation / Geoffrey Hale -- Infrastructure resilience strategy / Don Alper -- Border security issue / David Maloney -- The U.S.-Mexico line / Isidro Morales -- Agreeing on metrics / Damien Simmoneau -- Homeland and border security / Earl Fry -- Managing trade and economic impacts / Gary C. Hufbauer -- Customs trade partnership / Leslie A. Glick -- State of trade, competitiveness and economic well-being in the U.S.-Mexico border region / Erik Lee and Chris Wilson -- Measuring success / Michael Kergin -- North American processes and metrics / Mariko Silver -- Setting the stage / Duncan Wood -- Afterword.abstract: North American competitiveness is jeopardized by the transactional costs of internal borders. The advantage of proximity for just-in-time supply chains cannot be overstated. Even though the two smart/secure border accords had a number of common objectives there was no scorecard to track progress. Part of realizing the value of trade and the value of our neighbors is to change the story about borders and cast off the stereotypes of Canada and Mexico in the United State

Business intelligence in the electrical power industry

Nowadays, the electrical power industry has gained tremendous interest from both entrepreneurs and researchers due to its essential roles in everyday life. However, the current sources for generating electricity are astonishing decreasing, which leads to more challenges for the power industry. Based on the viewpoint of sustainable development, the solution should maintain three layers of economically, ecologically, and society; simultaneously, support business decision-making, increases organizational productivity and operational energy efficiency. In the smart and innovative technology context, business intelligence solution is considered as a potential option in the data-rich environment, which is still witnessed disjointed theoretical progress. Therefore, this study aimed to conduct a systematic literature review and build a body of knowledge related to business intelligence in the electrical power sector. The author also built an integrative framework displaying linkages between antecedents and outcomes of business intelligence in the electrical power industry. Finally, the paper depicted the underexplored areas of the literature and shed light on the research objectives in terms of theoretical and practical implications

Scaling Up Inclusive Business -- Solutions to Overcome Internal Barriers

Sustainability challenges including poverty, social unrest, climate change and environmental degradation have become ever more urgent. Business has the technology, innovation capacity, resources, and skills to play a key role in providing the radical solutions the world desperately needs.The objective of this brief is to kick off greater dialogue on the internal barriers companies face along the pathway to scale in inclusive business and how to overcome them. Building on the hands-on experience of businesses active in this space and the valuable insights of experts, the following pages identify some of the most common internal barriers and the solutions that leading companies are using to tackle them. We gained new insights by looking at the work of thirteen companies: CEMEX, Grundfos, Grupo Corona, ITC Ltd., Lafarge, Masisa, Nestlé, Novartis, Novozymes, SABMiller, Schneider Electric, The Coca-Cola Company, and Vodafone. We also interviewed two leading academics doing research in this area, Cornell University's Erik Simanis (United States) and Universidad de los Andes' Ezequiel Reficco (Colombia)

Competitive Benchmarking: An IS Research Approach to Address Wicked Problems with Big Data and Analytics

Wicked problems like sustainable energy and financial market stability are societal challenges that arise from complex socio-technical systems in which numerous social, economic, political, and technical factors interact. Understanding and mitigating them requires research methods that scale beyond the traditional areas of inquiry of Information Systems (IS) “individuals, organizations, and markets” and that deliver solutions in addition to insights. We describe an approach to address these challenges through Competitive Benchmarking (CB), a novel research method that helps interdisciplinary research communities to tackle complex challenges of societal scale by using different types of data from a variety of sources such as usage data from customers, production patterns from producers, public policy and regulatory constraints, etc. for a given instantiation. Further, the CB platform generates data that can be used to improve operational strategies and judge the effectiveness of regulatory regimes and policies. We describe our experience applying CB to the sustainable energy challenge in the Power Trading Agent Competition (Power TAC) in which more than a dozen research groups from around the world jointly devise, benchmark, and improve IS-based solutions

Tackling the Challenge of Climate Change: A Near-term Actionable Mitigation Agenda

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has invited world leaders to come to the Climate Summit on September 23, 2014 to deliver "bold pledges" to tackle climate change. This paper was prepared at the request of the Republic of Nauru, Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, as part of their answer to that call. We believe the path to the global low-carbon transformation needed to tackle the climate crisis is within reach, but requires decisive political action from leaders around the world, now. This paper is unabashedly prescriptive on the need for action, but recognizes that there are multiple approaches and models from around the world that can be scaled up and adapted to national circumstances. Cost-effective technologies for a low-carbon economy are being implemented throughout the world, but at nowhere the scale and speed necessary. Emissions continue to rise. With every year of delay, human suffering, biodiversity loss, and the costs of mitigation and adaptation increase. We are running out of time